Two weeks after launching an operation to recapture Fallujah from ISIL, the army secures the southern edge of the city.

Fighters battling to retake Fallujahh from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) said on Sunday that they secured the southern edge of the Iraqi city and almost completely encircled the whole city.

A leader of the Iran-backed Shia coalition taking part in the offensive said on Sunday the only side of Fallujah that remained to be secured by pro-Baghdad forces was part of the western bank of the Euphrates.

"We are now at the gates of Fallujah," Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy leader of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, told a news conference broadcast on state TV.

People fleeing Fallujah have been using anything that floats to help them get across the river, which is about 250 to 300 metres wide at the crossing point in farmland just south of the city, provincial council head Shakir al-Essawi said.